Research On Public Participation In Environmental Risk Regulation

Risks are a major contemporary crisis facing humans.In order to cope with all kinds of risks and reduce its damage towards human society,risk regulation has been promoted in different countries with the emerge of environmental issues.Regulation of environmental risks has become a newly administrative task for governments throughout the world.From a legal point of view,the biggest problem of risk regulation,a future-oriented decision,lies in the difficulty of acquiring legal resources basing on the traditional principles of administrative laws.While enhancing the legitimacy of public participation in risk regulation activities organized by administrative bodies is an effective solution of this problem.At present,the design of public participation system in China's environmental risk regulation should be improved,and there are problems like unclear provisions on the scope of public participation and serious formalization.These problems,on one hand,have caused strong disagreement from the public in implementing some major projects.On the other hand,they impede the establishment of risk regulation system within China.The purpose of this paper is to fully inspect current problems regarding public participation in environmental risk regulation basing on the analysis of related theories and existing legislation.Suggestions on improving public participation system in risk regulation will be put forward.Apart from revising related problems in the current society,the vision of future system construction will be explored in this paper.This paper is divided into four chapters.Chapter one is the summary of theories on environmental risk regulation and public participation,explaining the background of environmental risk regulation,analyzing theoretical basis and value on public participation in environmental risk regulation,and illustrating the significance of ensuring public participation.Chapter two starts from the legislation and current situation of China's public participation in environmental risk regulation,and summarizes laws and policies in this area.Combining with the newly issued laws and regulations,existing problems of public participation system in environmental risk regulation have been fully looked through.To be more specific,problems in legislation like unclear provisions on the scope of public participation and lack of rigid procedural provisions cause serious formalization in public practice.Lack of communication and coordination mechanism in mechanism construction makes it tough for the public to actualize the precondition of participation in risk regulation,namely the effective communication of risk information.Chapter three introduces three countries with advanced experience in public participation system in risk regulation.From legislation development to real practice,it deeply explores the tactics adopted by the three countries in this regard,concludes some regulation principles and innovative measures that adapt to China's real practice.Moreover,this chapter analyses foreign experience and give certain comments on the feasibility of it in combination with China's state quo.Chapter four is based on the real problems in public participation in China's environmental risk regulation.It introduces excellent experience form abroad,and combines some representative cases in local practice to solve current problems and provide viable recommendations for further improvement.Firstly,expand the scope for public participation.Public participation system should be added into environmental risk evaluation phrase and management phrase to ensure viable risk regulation.Secondly,enhance the effectiveness of public participation.Serious formalization should be dealt with by strengthening procedural provisions and improving initiative of administrative bodies.Thirdly,this chapter gives some advice on improving communication mechanism of environmental risk information.Bidirectional and multiple communication mode is suggested to establish so as to provide institutional support for successful public participation.